Attention, Interest, Desire, Action—that’s what AIDA stands for. The AIDA funnel is a marketing framework for understanding someone’s journey as they move from lead to customer. By structuring your marketing campaigns around the AIDA funnel, you can gain more control over leading your potential customers’ paths to a purchasing decision.
As potential customers move through each AIDA stage, they get closer and closer to the sale. Leads will learn more about you, feel more connected to your brand and hopefully, ultimately become a paying customer. We explain how to use the AIDA funnel in your marketing plan.
Grab attention
There are countless ways to direct attention to your brand. One aspect is online visibility, which ties back to search engine optimization (SEO). SEO helps people find your business more easily. There are multiple ways to optimize with SEO. You can include keywords (phrases people search for online) in your web copy. You can make sure your Google My Business® is up to date. With 46% of all Google® searches being local searches, it’s important that your local community can easily find you. It’s also crucial that your site speed and load times are fast.
Another way to snag attention is through valuable content marketing. You can quickly catch people’s attention with a blog post or newsletter focused on solving their problems. Encourage people to sign up for your content by offering a giveaway to those who do. This could be a free product or a complimentary one-on-one session where you provide coaching or consulting. Other useful customer giveaways, like foldable headphones or swivel USB drives, make great incentives.
Pique interest
Now that you’ve captured people’s attention—you’ve got to keep it. And to keep people’s attention, they need to care about your brand values. Most people (71%) would rather buy from a business that aligns with their values versus one that does not. Think about how you can showcase your brand values in your social media and blog posts, videos, emails and customer interactions. For example, if you value charity work, provide information on how you give back. If you value cutting down on waste, package customer purchases in a reusable organic gusseted cotton sheeting tote.
Storytelling is another fantastic way to get prospects interested, as stories portray information in a way that stimulates empathy and curiosity. Consider how you can incorporate stories of real people you’ve helped that support your facts and stats.
Spark desire
The “Desire” part of the AIDA funnel is where you get people to say, “I want your product/service.” You can move them into desire by building trust. For 81% of people, before committing to a purchase, they must trust a brand to do the right thing.
Establish trust with potential customers by creating case studies that portray the “before” and “after” of satisfied customers. You can also share testimonials on social media—88% of people trust testimonials and reviews as much as they trust their friends’ and families’ recommendations.
Take action
Once people reach the end of your funnel, it’s time for them to buy. To encourage them to take action, help customers understand how they’ll benefit from their purchase. How will their life be better if they enter their credit card information? How will things become easier if they click “Buy Now?” Clearly spell out benefits to get buy-in.
Another powerful way to convert leads is to remove barriers. Do they have to click two buttons when it could be just one? Are your calls-to-action (CTAs) clear and simple? Is your copy easy to understand, or is it peppered with jargon?
Once people purchase, thank them with a gift. Customer giveaways, like a sports T-shirt, bag of chocolate mints or leather watch, is a thoughtful way to reinforce that their purchase was a good decision.
Easily convert more people
By using the AIDA funnel to snag attention, pique interest, stimulate desire and take action, your business can more quickly convert high-quality leads into loyal customers.